With three Academy Awards and some of the biggest box office champs of all time under his belt, James Cameron has certainly found a way to blend art and commerce to great effect. “Never bet against James Cameron” has been the conventional wisdom in the film industry, and the adjacent world of film criticism, for at least 25 years. His movie Titanic became the biggest box office success of all time, a title it held for 12 years until it was defeated by Avatar, another Cameron movie that was expected to tank and instead scaled to almost unparalleled financial heights. Here is a list of movies by James Cameron that showcase his excellence as a filmmaker.
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1. Piranha II: The Spawning
IMDb
James Cameron famously worked as a special effects designer and artist for legendary B-movie producer Roger Corman when he landed his first gig as a director for this sequel to the 1978 cult classic Piranha. But according to multiple reports and Cameron himself, he was fired after two and a half weeks by Italian producer Ovidio G. Assonitis, who took over the project himself. As a result, Cameron leaves the film off his resume.
2. True Lies
IMDb
After scoring a huge blockbuster with 1991’s Terminator 2: Judgment Day, Cameron turned to the spy genre with this loose remake of the 1991 French comedy, La Totale!, in which an international spy pretends to be a normal businessman while hiding his true career from his family.
3. Avatar
IMDb
Make no mistake: Avatar is one of the few films that deserved the label “game-changer” in terms of its groundbreaking visual effects and remarkably immersive use of 3D, a technique that had been almost entirely relegated to the dustbin of film history as a gimmick. Cameron’s jaw-dropping creation of the alien world of Pandora and its inhabitants was utterly unique and detailed beyond anything in the same vein done before or since.
4. Titanic
TOI
Few films have captured the zeitgeist quite like “Titanic,” a three hour epic that manages to turn one of the world’s greatest tragedies into a love story for the ages. It’s an unapologetically corny, soapy and mesmerizing retelling of the 1912 ocean liner sinking, produced with exceptional craft and storytelling skill. Kate Winslet stars as Rose, a young woman of means traveling aboard the Titanic with her controlling mother (Frances Fisher) and arrogant fiance (Billy Zane). She quickly falls in love with the raffish Jack (Leonardo DiCaprio), a poor artist who sneaks onto the ship.
5. The Abyss
Amazon
Perhaps the most underrated title in Cameron’s canon, “The Abyss” is probably best remembered for its stunning, Oscar-winning visual effects, including a water creature created entirely from early CGI. Yet there are several special qualities to this harrowing deep sea thriller, which is filled with some of the filmmaker’s most awe-inspiring images. Ed Harris stars as Bud Brigman, who, along with his estranged wife, Dr. Lindsey Brigman (Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio), is leading a team of civilian divers searching for a lost nuclear submarine. While in the depths of the ocean, they must fight for their lives against an alien aquatic species.
6. The Terminator
Variety
Though he technically made his directorial debut with “Piranha II: The Spawning,” Cameron truly burst onto the scene with this gritty sci-fi action flick. Shot on a shoestring, “The Terminator” transcends its B-movie trappings thanks to a tightly-wound script and assured direction, not to mention a career-defining turn by Arnold Schwarzenegger. He plays a hulking, indestructible cyborg sent from the year 2029 to murder a young waitress (Linda Hamilton) whose unborn son will lead humanity against the uprising of the machines.
7. Aliens
Cinema Blend
It’s rare for a sequel to live up to its original, but “Aliens” manages to do it by both paying tribute to the original and marking out its own territory. While Ridley Scott’s “Alien” was a tightly-wound horror film, Cameron’s follow-up is an adrenaline-pumping action flick. Sigourney Weaver reprises her role as Ellen Ripley, the lone survivor from a spaceship besieged by a snarling, murderous extra-terrestrial. 57 years later, she’s rescued by a salvage team headed to the moon where she and her team first encountered the dangerous beast.
8. Terminator 2: Judgment Day
IMDb
As he did with “Aliens,” Cameron proved he was a master of sequels with this wildly ambitious follow-up to his breakthrough feature. While the first “Terminator” was a low budget production, “Terminator 2: Judgment Day” takes the same idea and mounts it on a grand scale, with mind-blowing special effects and heart-pounding action scenes. Once again, an evil terminator (Robert Patrick) is sent from the future to murder John Connor (Edward Furlong), who will lead humanity against the machines. But this time, a good terminator (Arnold Schwarzenegger) is sent to protect him with the help of his mother, Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton), who he previously tried to kill.